Oil, gas industry on high alert in event bin Laden killed, captured

WASHINGTON - The oil and gas industry is on especially high alert after a Federal Bureau of Investigation warning that Osama bin Laden may have ordered retaliatory strikes against North American natural gas facilities in event of his capture or death, industry sources said Monday.

Mel Scott, a spokesman for El Paso Corp. of Houston, the nation's largest pipeline company with 60,000 miles of pipelines nationwide, said El Paso has pulled its maps of pipeline routes from its Web site.

El Paso is the corporate owner of El Paso Natural Gas Co., Colorado Interstate Gas and ANR Pipeline, all with facilities in the Panhandle.

Scott declined to say how much more El Paso is spending on security, saying the company has increased security at its facilities and is working with state and federal officials.

"We take all threats seriously," Scott said.

Moore County Sheriff Ted Montgomery said Monday he has not received any additional warnings.

Earlier, he received notice that such facilities as natural gas pipeline pumping stations and the Ultramar Diamond Shamrock McKee Refinery near Dumas were on heightened security.

"Nothing has changed to my knowledge," Montgomery said.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the warning issued by the FBI last week was general and singled out no specific target, but referred specifically to natural gas infrastructure such as pipelines.

There are thousands of miles of gas pipeline, most of them buried, crossing the United States and Canada.

One source characterized the warning as similar to a warning issued earlier this month on potential attacks against West Coast bridges that prompted security alerts, but no evidence of actual terrorist intentions.

The FBI alert prompted the American Petroleum Institute, which is the lead industry group coordinating with the FBI and Energy Department on security matters, to issue a warning to oil and gas companies.

"We have received uncorroborated information that Osama bin Laden may have approved plans to attack natural gas supplies in the United States," said the memo.

It added that the information was "from a source of undetermined reliability."

The FBI warning continued that "such an attack would allegedly take place in the event that either bin Laden or Taliban leader Mullah Omar are either captured or killed."

Energy companies have stepped up security at refineries, pipeline pumping stations and other facilities since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and the U.S. retaliatory attacks in Afghanistan.